If you’re like me, chances are you started studying your working languages in an academic institution at a fairly young age. Maybe you’ve even forgotten what the early stages of language learning look like. And now you need to add a C language to your combination — maybe to try for the institutions — but you’re on your own and unsure how to make the process as efficient as possible.
The same thing happened to me. Here’s how I’m working to add a C language as an 8-year ESL + FLE teacher and language-learning enthusiast:
Preparatory steps:
✴️ Pick the right language
This is key. I suggest choosing a language from the same family as your native language. I am Italian, so I chose Romanian.
✴️Find time
If learning is your top priority, treat it as such. You need at least 2 quality hours of study every day; otherwise, you’ll likely miss the 2-year mark.
My 2h/day protocol
1️⃣ Listen at least 1h 🎧
I cannot stress this enough. As interpreters, we work with spoken interactions. We need to understand different pronunciations, so diversify input. Start with resources geared toward children. After one to two months, you should be able to move to adult content on familiar topics. I specialize in theology, so today I listened to a lecture on the divinity of Christ from the University of Bucharest.
2️⃣ Learn 15 new words
Extract high-frequency vocabulary from listening, learn it, and test it daily with flashcards. (I highly suggest Anki — it spares you the hassle of managing spaced repetition yourself.) At first, you’ll mostly learn individual words (Dumnezeu = God). After months of listening, you should naturally bump into collocations. Add those too (teamă de Dumnezeu = fear of God).
3️⃣ Read one page 📚
This may sound counterintuitive, but read. Romanian has sounds Italian lacks, like ă and â. This can make some words hard to grasp in listening. The same words often become much more intelligible once you see them on the page.
I can’t tell you how many aha moments I’ve had since I started reading my Biblia Copiilor (Bible for children).
4️⃣ Don’t neglect grammar, but be smart about it.
You don’t need explicit grammar study to master a language, but I’ve found grammatical awareness can speed up the process. Knowing Romanian has cases made me super careful about word endings from day one, which proved useful later. This being said, don’t obsess over grammar either. Cover one big topic every week or two: articles, feminine nouns, present tense verbs.
If you apply this consistently, it should allow you to start training to interpret into your A language around the 1-year mark. I really see it coming with my Romanian after 9 months. 💫